Skin cancer statistics
A common form of cancer which can be treated by surgery.
There were 224,000 skin cancers in England in 2019 and over 1.4 million between 2013 and 2019, making it the most common cancer diagnosed in the country, NHS Digital said on its website. For comparison, there were 288,753 new cancer diagnoses in 2020 overall.
In 2021, the most recent year for which there is published data, there were 15,861 new cases of malignant melonoma of the skin in England, across all ages.
8,078 of them were in men and 7,783 in women.
Devon was the worst-affected NHS region, with over 300 cases in both men and women across all ages.
Rates of cancer death fell in 2020, by 1% in males and 2% in females compared to 2019.
Around 15,400 people are diagnosed with melanoma in the UK each year, the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust said on its website.
The rate of malignant melanoma in Britain has risen faster than any other common cancer. Over the last decade, the number of people diagnosed with melanoma in the UK has increased by almost half.
Skin cancer becomes more common with age and melanoma is the fifth most common cancer in the UK.
Melanoma skin cancer cases account for 2% of all male cancer deaths in the UK, and 1% of all female cancer deaths.
Rates of malignant melanoma are increasing rapidly. Since 1997, there has been an increase of 155% for over 55s and 63% for under 55s.
Surgery is the main treatment for melanoma, especially if it’s found early. Radiotherapy, medicines and chemotherapy are also sometimes used, NHS Digital said on its website.
Surgery may also remove both the melanoma and an area of healthy skin around it, which helps lower the chances of it coming back.
Swollen lymph glands can also be removed if the cancer has spread to them or melanomas that have spread to other areas of the body.
Plastic surgery may be used if the melanoma is in a visible area and skin grafts are employed if necessary.